back on island

We arrived back on island late Saturday afternoon, after two days of airplane travel. We can travel in one very long day, but choose to spend the night in Atlanta for our sanity; we get a couple of good meals and some sleep. Traveling with smaller kids on a redeye flight never sounds good - and never sounds comfortable for adults either. With travel over long distances there is the added issues of good food, enough water, sleep, entertainment and time zone adjustments and some of us do well at making the changes than others. So the days following our arrival are always days I care not to remember from a parenting standpoint. We try but it is just plain hard. Our objectives are always to get the kids some sleep and some solid meals and let the rest fall to the wayside. But here we are, rested, fed, on the new time zone and we've had some productive days. C started school right away and is happy to be back with friends and in the structured environment. The girls and I had a few more days together with activities around the house and errands out and about; filling the fridge and pantry, clearing out the old and bringing in the new, reorganizing - and making birthday preps for the soon-to-be five year old. Personally, I prefer hiding out in the AC most of the day but have found the water to be a very comfortable place to be right now - especially in the evenings when the sun is behind the hill next to our beach. I am a bit self-concious about being out in a bikini with this huge belly but I don't have much of a choice if I want to be in the water. So in I go, avoiding eye contact with other bathers at the beach.

savoring

Some of our last summer days at home. A family get together, an all day trip to Port Townsend, beach time - oh that Puget Sound water is cold. B made friends with a little girl at the beach and together they caught all the jellyfish they could find. I was in and out of the water (knee deep) cooling myself and my ever-swelling ankles off. M snoozed higher up the beach in Dad's arms and C and another boy fired driftwood cannons at passing enemies.

building bird nests

Out in the field the girls were building bird nests from dried grass clippings. This went on for possibly an hour and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall (or in the grass in this case) to listen to what they were talking about. Little women really. In time, as they grow, this sitting together and making will be repeated: isn't that what many women like to do? Gather, make (or do something), talk (and did someone say eat?)

flowers

A few of the flowers found in the garden and out and about.

three

Nothing cuter than a little girl showing you with her fingers how old she is: three, in three different ways. She certainly knew it was her birthday and therefore knew how to play the part. Her birthday fell on a big family gathering so she had the extra fun of lots of cousins to play with all day long.

a week in review

 tutus and trucks

evenings out

forts made

records broken

birthdays celebrated

A busy week. C was at camp for a few days this week and then he and E took off for a couple of nights of camping further up the peninsula. So much to write about but I am steering clear off the computer most evenings (which is my time online) because the evenings are so beautiful right now.  Soon we'll be back in the heat of tropical weather, and I imagine I'll be cooped up in the AC alot of the time so its time to recharge in this mild NW summer. Other things to enjoy.

all comers track meet

A fun way to spend an evening once a week. An all comers track meet. Its put on by an all volunteer staff and some local businesses who donate water and set up equipment. Our kids ran the 50m, 100m, 200m, and the hurdles. There was no concern for times or places, even though both are tracked and printed in the local paper. As soon as our kids crossed the finish line, they were running back to the start to wait for another race. A few key techniques I learned from the kids: see M's starting stance. Seriously cute. Better if you are nearly doing the splits. B has on a head band made of blue satin ribbon. Helps with speed and keeping the bangs out. And C, well you just gotta love his spirit: mom did doesn't even matter what place - as long as you did your best!

low tide exploration

Enough to see and do all morning long.